日本打击侵犯著作权私人下载行为的罚则探析——兼评个人下载行为在中国入刑的可行性

Analysis on Japanese Copyright Law Penalties against Private Download Activities: also on Possibility of Criminalizing Private Downloading Activities in China

最新发布的TPP协议概要中,明确规定要强化对著作权的刑事保护。这一动向已由日本修改著作权法、加入对特定个人下载行为的刑事处罚充当先导和先行试验。然而,施行近三年来的跟踪调查表明,虽然其威慑效果较为明显,但促进产业发展的目的未能达到。针对TPP协议提出的这一新动向,对我国而言,从刑法及著作权法理论和现实基础来看,将特定个人下载行为入刑在目前并不具有可行性。如果未来立法者认为某一类特定个人下载行为在我国严重侵犯了法益,未来努力的方向也应当是先将该类特定下载行为确定为著作权侵权,再转变我国著作权刑事法律保护模式,充分发挥附属刑法的作用,方可讨论如何将特定下载行为正式纳入我国刑法打击范围的问题。

The newly leaked TPP agreement clearly provides that the reinforcement of criminal sanction of copyright infringement is needed. This proposition is backed by Japan＇s recent copyright law revision that criminalized certain private download activities. But evidently, the three years follow-up reports regarding the implementation show that the deterrence effect is obvious but it failed in promoting the development of the industry. In terms of the TPP proposition, for China, criminalizing private downloading activities is without theoretical and actual foundations, so it is infeasible. If in the future, Chinese legislators found certain private download activity infringes legal interests seriously, the future path should be making certain private downloading activity a copyright infringement firstly, and then changing China＇s criminal protection mode regarding copyright, utilizing subsidiary criminal law. We could then consider punishing certain private downloading activity with criminal law.